HOWL OF THE WILD - CHAPTER ONE

Lucy Wilkins is now twenty one and living and working in Nevada City, California. She lives in a two bedroom apartment with a seaview and balcony.
One day, she meets a gorgeous looking man with striking blue eyes named Paulo Vanadic but the visions she's been suffering with since the wolves' incident when she was nine, become much more frequent.

Meeting Paulo leads Lucy getting into some trouble with a group of hooligans, which Paulo saves her from. And more trouble with a black leather cladded group of men who trashes her apartment looking for her and him. It turns out they're a pack of wolves, so is Paulo, and so is she! Shocking Lucy entirely.
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I snapped out of my little daydream and poured some fresh
espresso into a mug and took it over to the customer who'd
ordered it. I'd worn my long, dark brown hair back in a low
ponytail. The man winked at me but I ignored it and carried on
serving.

By lunchtime, the small Italian café, I worked at on the corner
of Dwell Street in Nevada City was bustling with people who
wanted to drink in or take away coffee. When I went on my break
at half past one in the afternoon, I collapsed on one of the
booths.

I'd moved from North England to Nevada City, California last year
when I turned twenty one. It was my parents' idea for me to do
some travelling. So, here I am in sunny Nevada City, California,
working my butt off, and don't get paid much. I lived in a two
bedroomed apartment with a sea view and a balcony. I should be so
happy. But I wasn't.

My work colleague and friend, Silvia Johnson, slipped into the
booth opposite me. She was a fiery red head with blue eyes and
real pretty, too.

"Luc, honey, what's wrong?" she asked in concern.

"Do you remember I told you about my experience when I was nine
years when a grey wolf rescued me from a black wolf and then bit
me?" I asked.

She nodded and pulled out her packet of cigarettes from her apron
pocket and took one out to light it. "What about it?" she asked.

"I keep remembering it; do you think that's strange? Shouldn't I
forget about it like many things from your childhood?" I asked.
My eyes looked up and my jaw dropped to the floor as a tall, dark
haired, handsome man walked into the café.

"Lucy, hello," Silvia said, snapping her fingers in my face. She
turned around to see what I was gawping at and grinned turning
back to me. "Go get him. If you don't, I will."

The man saw me and stared deeply and then came walking over to
me. He had the bluest eyes I had ever seen on a man with black
hair. He smiled down at me ignoring Silvia's attempts at flirting
with him. He wore faded blue jeans with holes in at the knees and
a black leather jacket.

I found myself blushing. Who was this guy? He looked so familiar
to me, somehow. But how? "You look sort of familiar to me, have
we met before?" I asked.

"Once, a very, very, long time ago in a different form," Paulo
replied. I did wonder what he meant, but before I could ask my
uptight boss demanded Sylvia and I to get back to work.

"Sorry, our break is over," I apologised to him, standing up and
we were standing so close together that our bodies were almost
pressing.

"That's a shame," he said sadly, making me blush and took my
right hand in his and raised it to his lips. "Until we meet
again, my lady."

"Um, do you want coffee?" I said quickly, as he turned towards
the door as a bunch of foreign students walked in towards the
counter.

Paulo glanced back over his right shoulder and suddenly a weird
vision flashed before my eyes. Of two wolves running freely over
meadows; a white wolf and the grey wolf that came to my rescue
all those years ago.

When the vision had gone, I had Sylvia by my side asking if I was
alright as I was standing in the middle of the café staring into
space. When I came to my senses, I noticed that Paulo had gone to
my disappointment. I rushed out the café and looked both ways
down the busy high street but I couldn't see him. I went back
inside and demanded to know from Sylvia where he'd gone.

"Lucy, I really don't know. I didn't look, I'm sorry. I was more
concerned about you," Sylvia explained herself clearly. A
concerned look upon her face.

I put my arms around her and we hugged.

"I said back to work, you two," said Tony, angrily. He was
staring at us from behind the counter. He was the typical Italian
man. Short and plump with dark hair in white pants and t shirt,
and a white apron tied around his waist.

Sylvia and I got back to work serving customers.

By the time I finished my shift at half past six that night, I
was exhausted. I said good bye to Sylvia and Tony as we locked
up. I took a short cut back to my apartment where a group of
black hooded hooligans were standing in the dark alleyway smoking
a cigarette. I held up my head high as I walked past them as they
all watched me walk and a couple of them whistled after me.

I turned my head slightly over one shoulder when I heard
footsteps behind me, my brown eyes widening in terror. I
quickened my walk with my heart pounding. I stopped suddenly and
one of them stepped up behind me I could feel his vile breath on
my neck.

"What do you want?" I asked, in a confident voice.

The hooligans sniggered with one another. The one behind me put
his hands on my hips that made me spun me around to face him.

He was a dirty looking white male, had green eyes, and a goatee.
He had a mean look about him. He and his hooligan buddies
surrounded around me. I felt trapped. And simply petrified of
what they were going to do to me.

Suddenly, one of them was lifted up into the air then thrown
against the brick wall.

The other hooligans and I glanced up surprised. It was Paulo
Vanadic.

"Let her go!" Paulo commanded, as he came forward. "Or do I have
to make you."

I spaced out again as another vision flashed before me of the two
wolves. Their howling rang loudly in my ears. I covered my ears
with my hands to block the sound out as it was too loud. I
snapped out of it when Paulo started shaking me by the arms.

"Lucy, Lucy, are you alright?" he asked concerned.

I took my hands away from myears and looked at him then looked at
the unconscious group of hooligans on the ground. I turned back
to him. "How did you do that?" I couldn't keep the surprise out
of my voice. When he was about to speak, I walked away.

Paulo followed me walking as quickly as I was back to my two
bedroomed apartment with sea view.

"There is something I should tell you," he began, as I pulled out
my key ring from my handbag and placed it in the lock.

"Why would I be interested in what you have to tell me?" I asked,
dryly. The key was stuck in the lock. "This damn lock," I started
to get annoyed.

"Please, let me try," Paulo said. I stepped away and let him try
and open the lock. By magic, he'd opened the door. He turned to
me and grinned. "There you go," he said.

"How'd you do that? Every time I've wanted to open the door it
always gets stuck," I explained the situation with a short laugh.

He pulled out the key from the lock and gave it to me and our
fingers touched it sent like electrical bolt of energy run
through my body from head to toe.

Another vision came to me of the wolves and they were nuzzling
one another and rubbing their backs affectionately. I shook the
image from my head and smiled up at him. "Sorry about that,
recently I've been having visions. Very strange visions," I tried
explaining.

I opened the front door and stepped inside then turned back to
him. "Would you like to come in for some coffee?"

"Sure, I love coffee," Paulo said, then stepped into the
apartment.

"Sorry, could you take your shoes off, please. My landlord
doesn't want any dirt around the apartments, so no shoes," I
said. I rolled my eyes and he laughed. I watched as he slipped
off his casual black shoes and placed them down by the front
door. I smiled then walked through to the open kitchen. He took a
seat onone of the high stools at the breakfast bar while I filled
the steel kettle up with water and switched it on to boil.

"So, tell me about these visions you've been experiencing, maybe
I can help," he said, smiling.

I turned around and looked at him. "I hardly know you and you'd
probably think I was crazy anyhow," I replied, turning back to
making fresh coffee in the coffee machine.

"No, I wouldn't," Paulo said firmly. "Try me."

After I made two mugs of fresh coffee I brought them over and
handed one over to him and our hands touched and it sent another
electrical bolt rush through me and a vision of a pack of wolves
running flashed before me.

"Another vision?" he asked, taking the coffee mug from me.

"Yeah, really bizarre, I've had them since I was a kid," I
replied, sipping my coffee.

Paulo leaned forwards across the breakfast bar so our faces were
just inches away from each other. He held his intense gaze at me
and I was hypnotised by his beautiful blue eyes. "What happened?"

"I was on a camping trip with my parents when I was nine years
old in Northern England and I saw this beautiful grey wolf
staring at us, but me in particular," I told him, remembering it
vividly in my head. "I remember seeing a wolf's paw print that
early evening when I went to the place where I'd seen the wolf
but it was nowhere to be seen. Then it suddenly appeared. It
wanted me to follow it and I did having this gut instinct that it
would protect me from something or someone. The grey wolf had
started running and I ran after it and it led me to this large
lake. I was able to drink some water. And then I heard loud howls
so I got scared and tried to run in the direction I came from the
tent but because it was night time I couldn't see a thing. I'd
tripped over a stone and then..." I stopped with my story.

Paulo gasped. "And then? Go on, you can say it," he said,
encouraging me to tell the whole story. He grabbed hold of my
right hand and looked deeply into my eyes.

"And then I saw a pair of bright yellow eyes in the shadows and
they belonged to a big, bad, black wolf that was snarling
viciously at me. It looked so angry as it stared right at me
getting ready to kill me there and then," I stopped to take a
breath. As remembering how petrified I had been made me shake. He
squeezed my hand tighter with his.

"Go on."

I swallowed and continued with my story. "Then out of nowhere,
the grey wolf came to my rescue and pounced on the black wolf
that was going to kill me and they started fighting. The black
wolf got hurt and ran off into the woods. The grey wolf came to
me and let me stroke it and it felt so soft like silk," my voice
trailed off in a dreamlike state. I stared off into space. "My
Dad came to find me and the grey wolf bit me slightly on the left
hand. See, you can almost see the scar," I showed him a faint
teeth mark scar on my left hand. I watched Paulo's expression as
he looked at my scar and he didn't look amazed or shocked.
"You're not shocked?"

"And these visions you have are connected to this experience, you
think?" Paulo asked, casually. He leaned back on the stool with
his hands in his lap looking very relaxed. When I didn't reply,
he added. "The reason I ask is because is the reason I needed to
tell you something."

I sipped my coffee, "which is?" I asked.

He turned his head to the side as if he could hear something that
I couldn't.

Suddenly, all of a sudden, I could hear a heavy group of leather
cladded men walking down the street a couple of blocks away. They
were one block away. I could hear exact sound of their heavy
boots clumping along the path. The men were down at the end of my
street.

Paulo quickly got up off the stool and grabbed me by the arm. "We
have to go, now!" he ordered. "You can hear them, can't you?"

I could hear the men's' heavy footsteps coming closer and closer.
I let him drag me to the balcony sliding glass door and I was
pulled out onto the balcony. "What are we doing? What is going
on?" I demanded to know, I had my hands on my hips.

He ignored me and crouched down andpulled me down with him. Paulo
pulled me down again whenI stood up again. "Shut up, and stay
down," he told me harshly. He looked round the corner and rose to
his knees peering through the glass door. His eyes widened.

I looked through as well and my eyes widened in shock. A group of
leather cladded men with big, black clumpy boots busted down my
front door and entered my apartment. They were mean looking. They
looked around my apartment and started throwing things about.

One of them with shoulder length black hair held up his right
hand to indicate for the other men to stop and they did. He
raised his head up sniffing the air and an evil smile curled
around his lips. The men gathered around him.

Paulo and I ducked down and he grabbed me up to my feet then
grabbed my hand and turned to me and asked. "Do you trust me?"

I stared deeply into his blue eyes and saw all goodness and
sincerity in them. I smiled a bit and said. "Yes."

"We have to jump," he said. He pointed to the ground.

"Are you nuts, we'll be killed!" I said, incredulously. Paulo
pulled me to the edge of the balcony and I leaned over the edge
andlooked down. "Oh, god!"

The balcony door slid open and the men stepped out looking around
but didn't see us as we were dangling from the balcony rail with
our legs dangling in the air. They sniffed the air.

They want me? I thought. What would they want with me? I'm
nothing special just a small town girl from Northern England. My
right hand began to lose its grip around the white bar of the
balcony and I shrieked alerting the men.

The men glanced down and saw us they looked enraged and their
eyes turned a golden colour like an animal's that made me shriek
out and lose my grip around the bars and I fell backwards falling
towards the ground.

Paulo had let himself fall back as well yelling out as he fell.

We landed to the ground unharmed with our hands on the ground and
one leg up and our heads lowered. We looked at each other then
turned and looked up at the balcony where the men were still
glaring down.

"OK, I need answers right now," I demanded to Paulo, angrily. He
grabbed hold of my left hand and dragged me back onto my feet and
we started to run. I glanced back over my shoulder and my eyes
grew wide with terror as the men had jumped down to the ground
from my balcony and were now running after us at full speed.

Paulo and I reached a dark alleyway but it was blocked off by a
wired fence. We turned around as we heard the men coming closer
to us.

"Well, well, well, look who we have here," said the leader of the
men. "Paulo, saving his princess from the likes of me and his own
kind. But wait a second, isn't she our kind as well now?" he
turned to his menand asked.

The other men all nodded.

"Let her be, Andre," Paulo said. His face darkening as he stared
at his enemy.

"We're not going to harm her. Why should we harm this young,
beautiful maiden here? After all, she is destined to be my
bride," the leader named Andre replied. He stepped forward then
stopped. "You have no idea who we are, do you dear? Nor do you
know why you get strange visions and dreams of wolves. Nor do you
know what's happening to you right now. I'm surprised Paulo
hasn't told you yet."

"Told me what?" I asked, I glanced at Paulo and he glanced at me
with an apologetic look.

"You're a wolf, my dear. You're becoming a wolf. That's what we
are, all of us here together - wolves," Andre revealed the
shocking revelation. He stepped back with a smile on his face
with his hands out to the side. "I was going to bite you myself
in my wolf form when you were nine but Paulo here had to come out
and attack me instead so he could give you the wolf medicine," he
pouted out his bottom lip.

I shook my head and laughed. "That's impossible. A wind up,
right?" I said, glancing at Paulo and he shook his head.

"It's true, Lucy," Paulo replied. He turned back to Andre his
face darkening. "You will never have her."

"We'll see about that," Andre answered, evenly. "Kill him and
bring me the girl," he orderedhis men over his shoulder. He
stepped back and then turned and walked away.

Paulo crouched down on his hands and knees and shape shifted into
a beautiful grey wolf with blue eyes before my very eyes. In his
wolf form, he snarled ferociously at the men before us with his
ears right back and the hackles around his neck up.

The men shape shifted too into a pack of vicious black wolves.
They looked as though they were going to kill us right there and
then.